Archery Pictures Sets Sail With ‘Four Mums In A Boat’

EXCLUSIVE:Kris Thykier’s Archery Pictures has acquired book and life rights to Four Mums In A Boat, a true story of four working mothers from Yorkshire, England, who battled the Atlantic in the world’s toughest row – the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

The book will be published by HQ, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in March 2017, with Archery taking film and television rights to the title. Archery’s Pip Williams will develop and ultimately produce the property alongside Thykier.

HQ executive publisher Lisa Milton acquired the world rights for the project from Eugenie Furniss at Furniss Lawton.

Story sees four women – Janette, Helen, Niki and Frances – row across the Atlantic over the course of two months, fuelled by dried food packs, chocolate bars and pure will and stamina. They lost power, water, steering and went without washing and wearing clothes before crossing the finish line on the morning of February 25, 2016. Dubbed the Yorkshire Rows, the team officially became Guinness World Record holders as the oldest all-female crew to row across any ocean.

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“I was truly inspired by the story of these women who prove that you can achieve anything if you set your mind to it,” said Williams. “Their positive outlook and humour brings warmth to what is ultimately a hugely formidable challenge and achievement.”

The Yorkshire Rows team said: “We are very excited to be partnering with Kris and Pip at Archery Pictures. When we set out to row our ocean one of our main aims was to inspire others, proving that we are all capable of so much more than we imagine is possible.”

Archery is currently in post on John Madden’s Miss Sloane, starring Jessica Chastain, which EuropaCorp is releasing in the US on December 9. The company is also producing Sky Atlantic Cote d’Azur crime series Riviera, written by Neil Jordan, and Peter Kosminsky’s new four-part drama for Channel 4 and National Geographic about four British men and women who join ISIS in Syria.